Aerie Pharmaceuticals Begins Public Offering of Common Stock

IRVINE, Calif.—Aerie Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AERI), an ophthalmic pharmaceutical company, announced on Wednesday that it has commenced a registered underwritten public offering of $75 million of shares of its common stock. The underwriter will have a 30-day option from the date of the offering to purchase up to an additional $11.25 million of shares of common stock. Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. is acting as the sole bookrunner for the offering. Aerie intends to use the net proceeds of the offering for general corporate purposes, including to fund expansion of its commercialization programs in North America for both Rhopressa and Roclatan, as well as its clinical and commercialization efforts beyond North America.

Net proceeds of the offering would also fund further development of activities to support the ongoing development of its retina programs and evaluating possible uses of its existing proprietary portfolio beyond ophthalmology, its external business development efforts, and its manufacturing activities, including the construction of its own manufacturing plant in Ireland.

A shelf registration statement relating to the shares is effective with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The shares may be offered only by means of the prospectus forming a part of the effective registration statement and a related prospectus supplement.

A preliminary prospectus supplement related to the offering was scheduled to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday. An electronic copy of the preliminary prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus will be available on the website of the Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov.

Aerie focuses on the discovery, development and commercialization of first-in-class therapies for the treatment of patients with glaucoma or ocular hypertension and other diseases of the eye.